Thursday, 6 April 2017

Nicky Nook circuit and new walk plans

Thursday 30th March '17 - Thursday walk with Pete.
Pete prefers to stay on Tarmac these days, but I persuaded him to take on the track which forms a significant proportion of this circuit of Nicky Nook. We had experienced heavy rain during the night, but the track was pretty well founded with only a few negotiable puddles. It follows the pleasantly wooded Grizedale valley accompanied by the clear lively waters of Grizedale Beck to arrive at Grizedale Reservoir. Although that is a man made affair it is attractive, providing a good focal point for this walk.

Onto the Grizedale path from the road. The OS map shows this track joining the road about fifty yards further north than it really does.If you joined where the map shows you would have to descend a very steep, wooded, overgrown banking which can be seen on the left of this photo.

The rooks are getting busy

Grizedale Resrvoir

Fell End Farm sprawling below Grizedale Fell

************************************************************

On Tuesday this week I met up with friends from the past for a very pleasant lunch at the Old Hall Inn at Threshfield in the Yorkshire Dales. Mike Dickson kindly gave me this photo for my "Signs" collection. I have had to crop it and enlarge from a low resolution photo to start with, and the actual sign is blurred so I have interpreted with the caption. I am not sure exactly where it was taken, except that Mike said it was in Yorkshire - well you might have guessed ( I do hail from Yorkshire, so I'm entitled to that comment.)

****************************************************

On Monday 10th April I am off on another long walk.

I catch the 5:00 am train from Arnside to Berwick-upon-Tweed via Lancaster, Carlisle and Newcastle. From Berwick I intend to walk to Castle Cary in south Somerset assuming my rickety frame and health hold out.That is about a month's walking and around 470 miles. I hope to post here daily.

The rationale was to find a varied walk down the country, avoiding as much as possible previously trodden terrain and to fit within a month, give or take. There are three Macmillan ways: Boston to Abbotsbury, Boston to Barmouth, and Boston to Barnstaple. I have walked the first two passing through Castle Cary on the Abbotsbury walk, and the Barnstaple one branches off from Castle Cary on its way to its destination, so that seemed like a location with personal resonance, at the appropriate distance, as well as being serviced with a railway station to facilitate my return.

Last year I walked the Northumberland Coast Path, but due to an error in accommodation booking I missed out the four mile stretch between NU 073 434 (sluice) and NU 038 468 near Cheswick and my start at Berwick will enable me to fill in that gap.

I have plotted my route on Memory Map and if anybody wants a copy of the GPX file I would be pleased to email it if you send me your email address to conrob@me.com. You would of course need to have the appropriate OS mapping on your computer to download the GPX route onto. Because the route was really only intended for my own use it is a bit broad brush in places but fairly obvious which paths, canals, and the like I intend to follow. There will of course be diversions, but that is part of the attraction for me instead of having to slavishly follow a proprietary named LDP (long distance path.)

8 comments:

Enjoy your latest adventure Conrad. I've been 'off-line' for ages to ensure my shoulder recovery, then L was smitten by the 'flu followed by me a few days later. Your blog has been a tonic during this time.

Bob - I hope I csn keep you entertained.--------------------Depraton - welcome to the blog and thanks for your comment. I hope you will continue to contribute. I looked at your blog, super photos but the language defied me. How did you come accross my blog?

You may have hailed from Yorkshire (I trust you didn't become hoarse) but you also left it for good some years ago. Thus preparing yourself for the role of Professional Yorkshireman - declaiming from the sidelines in a progressively more nasal voice. They all do it: JB Priestley, Geoff Boycott, John Braine, none of them fancied a semi in Wyke. I am guilty myself. All I can say in my own defence is I did it early (aged 24) and with an enormous sense of relief. And now with all the zealotry of a convert I look north towards The County of the Narrow-Gutted from a location most of them are unaware of.

Goaded by vindictiveness I visited Gordon Terrace and it looked like a line of doll's houses. To misquote WS: A world too narrow for my pretensions. Heggs' garage still exists but is much diminished and no longer a garage.

Search This Blog

Followers

Follow by Email

Sir Hugh (CHR)

About Me

This blog features mainly my walking exploits interspersed with other random topics

ALL REASONABLE COMMENTS WELCOME. NOT SURE HOW TO MAKE A COMMENT? EMAIL ME AT: conrob@me.com.

Cautionary quotes for those who intend to walk with others

"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail

"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail."

"...the man who goes alone can start today, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off."Henry David Thoreau

--------------------------------

Aspirations

Lives of great men will remind us

We can make our lives sublime

And,departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Longfellow

----------------------

"Adventure is just bad planning"

Roald Amundsen

--------------------------------

...he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said ”Bother!” and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously...

Wind in the Willows

LISTS

My UK long distance walks

My French long distance walks

BOOKS

EIGHT BOOKS are available; Each one has a day to day journal and many colour photos.